@jonalogy I worked with a tutoring company earlier this year to help them drive more benefit from their website (I co-run a digital marketing agency)
Here are the top tips for your marketing:
1) When you're looking at SEO, the search results are HYPER local for people searching for tutoring
This is the stuff I recommend doing ASAP.
Make sure you set up a Google My Business listing for yourself. You'll need a physical address but it's OK to use your home. You
could use another space but, to verify with Google, you need to be able to receive a postcard to that address. The postcard contains a verification code.
When you build your website you'll need to create
one page per subject you tutor - people look for "maths tutors near me", "physics tutors near me" so you need a dedicated page for Google to put in their search results.
EDIT: Just seen your maths based. That's easy... you probably just need a single, long page website that lists what you cover, testimonials, etc.
If you have any contacts with your university newspaper, see if you can get them to link to your website. It will help your rankings if the university / local publications link to you.
In general, make sure your website looks modern and is FULL of testimonials.
You should be asking EVERY person you tutor to leave you a review on your Google My Business page, at a minimum. Get your friends to leave you reviews. Contact people who you've tutored in the past to leave reviews.
Reviews = better rankings and more $$$
2) Don't bother with Google Ads initially, at least not in the normal way
You're going to be up against national tutor firms who can afford to pay more than you. Don't waste your cash.
If you
do want to do it then you'll need to do two things:
a) Make a single lead gen page to send people to, e.g.
https://www.affordableacademicsuccess.com/
Unbounce is a good tool to build them in:
https://unbounce.com/
b) Make sure your Google Analytics is set up properly - if you've not got goals set up and things aren't tracking properly, you're fucked
Basically... don't do Google Ads... you'll drive yourself insane and waste time if you don't know what you're doing at this stage
When you use paid-for advertising there are a few calculations you need to make:
- What's my profit per new customer? - in your case, I'm going to assume each student will do, on average, five sessions with you. That gives them a "lifetime value" of $100.
- How much can I spend to obtain new customers? - That number needs to be less than $100 or you're making no money. To obtain new customers you either spend your time or cash.
- For ads, you're going to be sending people to the website. How much will it cost per visitor you send? - Assume that, through Google Ads, you'll be paying about... holy fuck, lowest estimate is $3 per click... average looks about $5. Every click on your ad will cost you $3-7... obviously a lucrative / competitive market.
- What percentage of my website visitors will convert to paying customers? - Assume this will be about 5%... that's a fairly high estimate, but feels reasonable for what to expect.
- Put it all together... - So, 5% conversion rate means you'll need 20 visits for a new student. 20 visits will cost you $60. That means you'll make $40 profit from each student who does 5 sessions with you. Doable... but tight. If your website conversion rate is only 2.5% then it'll cost you $120 per new customer and you are fucked! If you're paying $5 per click you're basically going to go bankrupt in a week.
You'd need to know your website conversion rate and then start doing the maths on your pricing structure to work out affordability.
Avoid Google Ads! (this is coming from someone who runs a digital agency...)
3) Ads on Facebook and Instagram are a good shout, but can be pricey
Again, I'd wait to do FB ads until you've got a decent website.
I'd consider doing all your business from an FB company page at first. Focus on building up the biz through word of mouth and flyering at first.
4) TOP TIP - Have a referral program
You're targeting students who are always low on cash. Tell the people you tutor that, for every person they refer, who does X sessions with you, you'll give them $Y for it. You'll need to work out that %age.
If you assume that, with any other advertising, e.g. Google Ads, you're going to be spending money to get new customers anyway, you could comfortably offer your students $20 for every new student they send your way. Still way less than the low-end estimate of $60 per new student through Google Ads.
Hope some of this helped
My Ritalin just kicked in so I got pretty focused on this haha
